House Passes Bill To Curb Use Of Lie-detector Tests

WASHINGTON — The House, concerned about an epidemic of lie-detector tests in the workplace, has voted to bar private companies from requiring them.

The House approved a bill last week that would curtail the use of polygraphs by private companies, which last year administered 2 million tests to workers.

Rep. Matthew Martinez, D-Calif., the bill's sponsor, said that the use of polygraphs ''elevates a voodoo craft into a science'' and called for a halt of industry's use of lie-dectector tests as a condition of employment.

The House bill, which must be approved by the Senate, prohibits companies from requiring lie-detector tests or from disciplining or discharging a person who refuses to take a test.

The bill, however, approved the use of the controversial screening measure for employees of drug companies and for many kinds of security guards, including those who work at nuclear and electric power plants and those who guard radioactive or toxic waste.

Another provision would allow lie-detector tests to be given to workers with ''direct access'' to children at day-care centers or the elderly at nursing homes.

The bill would prohibit the use of lie-detector tests by private industry but would not affect federal, state and local government employers or private companies with government contracts involving national security.

In 1985, the worst year of espionage in U.S. history, President Reagan called for use of lie-detector tests for all government employees dealing with matters of national security.